Wigtownshire Ramblers Culvennan Fell September 2012

Saturday the 29th of September.

Lofty is today's leader.

This is a walk we did two years ago.

2010 Walk

Once I get Lofty's report I'll publish it below.

Thirteen of us today. We start on the Three Lochs road north of Kirkcowan. 

Another account of this walk will appear on my good friend Gordon from Ayr's Blog

This place is very interesting.

It's an old farmstead that goes by the name of Drumbuie and looks like there's a lot of history about it.

There's a stone in the wall marked 1734.

There's a genealogy page which says a Moravia Charteris was born here, a possible descendant of Malachy King of Ireland.

And there's also a tree (I think that's a picture of it on my last post of this walk) called 'The Boy Tree', where a young 11 year old Peter Douglas was murdered by a tinkler or tinker called Alexander Cochrane.

Details are found in Andrew McCormick's 'The Tinkler Gypsies' (pages 134 to 139) or have a quick look HERE 

These dead trees are at the back of Drumbuie

Our next point of interest is in the grounds of Shennanton.

Several theories were put forward to what the enclosure above was used for.

Shennanton

Views over to the Galloway Hills from the River Bladnoch.

The flock of Texel's all had what looked like mud spots on them.

Here's a rare looking work of natures art

Sheep, precarious crossings and the Black Burn.

Looking for anything on the Black Burn, I came across a government document about the proposed Glenchamber Windfarm near Glenluce. Now I've never been anti windfarm, but I'm sure we have enough in this area now. This proposal was rejected by the local authorities, but somehow the Scottish Government believe they have the right to disregard the wishes of the local people.

Here's the link to that document should anyone wish to read it.

                                 Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals

Lunch overlooking Barfad Loch

Another look at the enclosed memorial on the loch side. The wreath, bottom right looks well weathered now.It may be in memory of a McKie who were resident at Barfad. 

Barfad

Mud. The hill we go past is called Killymuck.........quite appropriate !

A carpet supplied by the Stationmaster gets us over the barbed wire.

Here we head into the Shennoch Plantation.
Shennoch:- from the Gaelic Sean, old and cognate with the Latin Sen-ex

The final climb to Culvennan Fell.

Culvennan Fell. Vent breccia. Breccia with generally angular clasts adjacent to the margin of a diorite intrusion. Finely laminated fine sandstone clasts are typical of the host sediments. Coarser-grained white sandstone clasts, sometimes rounded, are exotic.

Don't ask me, I know nothing about geology.!

One triangulation pillar and one flush bracket

The group picture.

The trig point is 213 mtrs, the cairn is 215 mtrs.

The Ayrshire Blogger is less than 2 mtrs

Over the fells

I think this may be Chanterelle, apparently edible and delicious.

A wide ranging view east.

We have a feeling that this is a prehistoric site (not the sheepfold), but there's nothing on the O.S map.

The last leg of a nice nine mile hike.

Shorty's report will appear here later.

Wigtownshire Ramblers – Saturday 29 September 2012

Thirteen ramblers assembled on the Three Lochs road just north of the A75 on a morning that promised crisp autumn weather.  Dark clouds to the north suggested something else but the group headed off in good spirits along the old Military Road.  Some sections were wet and muddy but the solid base created under the direction of General Caulfield in the 1760s provided a good foothold.

They soon reached the old farmstead of Drumbuie.  There they paused to inspect the unusual archway which served the courtyard of the old house.  A stone gave the date of 1734 which predates the Military road.  The group continued eastwards along the road which soon reached a tarmac section which took them to Doonhill Wood.  From there they squelched through a gateway and followed the edge of the wood over a low hill below the main power line.  From there they took to the attractive woods around Shennanton House.  In the woods they found an unusual dyked enclosure about 4 metres square with the sides sloping down to the south.  There was no entrance into the enclosure nor any obvious structure inside.  There was much speculation as to its purpose.

The ramblers skirted the main gardens and emerged onto the road at Shennanton Sawmill.  They followed the road past the home farm and as far as the Bladnoch bridge.  There they took to the fields and followed the course of the river northwards.  As they went along a couple of shots were heard and, fearful of disturbing a shoot, they proceeded carefully until it became clear that the noises were only a pair of gun dogs under training.  Burn crossings added to the entertainment and they soon reached the road again.  After crossing the road they entered another wood and soon reached their lunch stop overlooking Barfad Loch.

Lunch was curtailed by a sudden sharp shower so the ramblers donned their wet weather gear and headed for the old track which crossed north of the fells.  The rain soon stopped but the track got wetter and the presence of cattle made the going a little difficult.  The route crossed a fence into the forest and the going got easier.  There was a short pause at the ruins of Shennock farm where the walk leader recounted a tale of an army exercise where the unsuspecting shooting tenant was confronted by a troop of armed soldiers supported by small Scorpion tanks.  He felt somewhat out-gunned.

After leaving Shennock the ramblers followed the little used forest road to the top of Shennock Fell.  The main users seemed to be red and roe deer which had left many tracks in the muddy sections.  The group then cut through the trees and emerged onto the open moorland.  A short climb led them to the cairn and trig point on the top of Culvennan Fell.  There were excellent views in all directions with odd features picked out by patches of sunshine as the clouds scudded over the sky.  A pair of diggers were working away on the summit of an adjacent hill but it was not clear what they were up to.

The group descended the southern side of the fell and then a short rise led them to the summit of Crunlae Fell.  After admiring the views over the Machars and Wigtown Bay they continued on down following a well-used sheep track.  On reaching the lower ground they found evidence of several ancient structures.  One had the appearance of a chambered cairn and another seemed to be the outline of a building but there was nothing marked on the current maps. 

The route then followed a rough path over green fields and bracken knolls with boggy sections and deep burns between them, after which they re-joined the Three Lochs road and regained the cars.  It had been an enjoyable but testing walk of 9 miles.

The next event, on Saturday 6^th October, is the popular walk around Newton Stewart.  Meet at the Breastworks Car Park in Stranraer at 09:30 to share transport.  The walk will start from the Riverside Car Park in Newton Stewart at 10:00. (Grid Ref: NX 412 653)  New walkers are always welcome.  For any queries, please contact the walk leader on 01671 403351.

Wigtownshire Ramblers-Culvennan Fell

It's Saturday the 11th of September 2010.
Todays walk is a new one.It's a circular taking in Culvennan Fell north of Kirkcowan.It's in an area not far from civilisation,but somehow remote because of the rugged terrain.

There are twenty of us as we park the cars just north of the A75 on the three lochs road.Showers are forecast,but it looks good at the moment.

A short distance south.I think the farmer had the right idea if the spacing between the words had been greater distances.
Now we leave the tarmac and take to the route of an old Military road to the east.
These ruins must have been a stopping off place.

This from heritagepaths.co.uk
This is part of a fascinating military road that was built by Major Caulfeild in the 1760s. The road originally stretched 105 miles from Bridge of Sark to Portpatrick and much of the old road is under the A75. There is a far larger section* from Ardachie into Glenluce that is not under the A75, but that is not as easy to find anymore, so this is the only part known to be readily walkable.

Unlike all other military roads built in this period, this road was not built for the Hanovarians to gain advantage over the Jacobites but to aid troop movements to Ireland. Roads existed here before the military road was built, so what happened was that those roads were reconstructed and realigned in places. Indeed it has been suggested that much of this road followed a Roman road.

At Ardachie farm the road veers in a north easterly direction.

After a couple of kilometres or so we cross the Carseriggan road into the Mark plantation and take a look at Shennanton House.It's a grade A listed building dating back to 1908,and can be hired out.A short 3 day break for just over £4000 isn't a bad price if there are enough of you.

I spoke to a man who was heading into the woods with a camouflage platform hoping to bag some venison for supper.
Interested ? take a look here
Shennanton

We continue rounding the Shennanton estate passing this old galvanised aeroplane shelter and the Mark of Shennanton Steading.This is another listed building,the technical details are here Mark of Shennanton

Reaching the River Bladnoch we take to the fields north.It's still quite cloudy,but when the sun does come out it's very warm.
Some of the Galloway Hills are still under cloud.

We were watched carefully through this field of prime stock.We also watched carefully!

I've been around of this stretch of the Bladnoch before.I'd been looking for the confluence of the Black Burn and the Bladnoch.Ring of Barfad

Much of todays walk meant negotiating swollen burns.Shorty, our walk leader today, is at pains to insist they weren't like this on the recce...

...Just look at the length of his legs !

I assume the farmer uses these vessels for animal feed.I remember seeing cast iron pots like this in my youth.The foundry at the rear of John White and Sons,Auchtermuchty where I worked had cast vessels of all shapes and sizes.Contrary to popular belief, amazingly we still have a few foundries in Scotland.

Now we're leaving the river towards Carsbuie.A frisky herd of young steers provide a Western touch as they re-enact a scene from Rawhide for us.

Crossing the tarmac road,we take a muddy track through Stony Park plantation.Now into open countryside it's nearly time for lunch.

We're overlooking Barfad Loch.
Beyond the boathouse is an enclosure that needs further investigation....

...it's a site of pilgrimage and probably a lasting memorial to someone.
The large stone in the middle has what may be a font carved into it,and there were a couple of wreaths underfoot.Very intriguing.

Lunch over and we head north of the loch.

Heading west we join what once was a fairly substantial road judging by the stone underfoot.
We're rounding Killymuck (coille nam muc = the wood of the pigs) hill here.

Crossing obstacles has been quite a feature of todays walk.There's more to come !

A dead slow-worm with half it's body missing is found.Chief suspects would be a buzzard or a pine marten.

Now we reach the ruins of a farmstead at Shennock.
Our walk leader recounts an anecdote from working around here some time back.
Now we begin a steady climb through forestry.

We emerge onto Culvennan Fell and a beautiful view over to Wigtown Bay.

A short climb takes us to the trig point.

At 214 Metres,this is the highest point in the Machars.It's only 700 feet but there are some great views from here.


Landmarks are identified and pointed out....

...over to the south-west the Mull of Galloway and Knock Fell (our walk in a fortnight) are bathed in sunshine.

After an enjoyable break we begin a zig zag descent.

Above is a collage of pictures from my last venture onto these fells.There's an abundance of drystone enclosures around here.

Here we come across what appears to be Neolithic burial cairns,much the same as can be seen at Cairnholy.There appears to be a lot of stuff around these fells not documented.I think a good metal detector might turn up some really exciting finds.

Now we're heading over the interestingly sounding Haw Hill with Culvennan Fell behind us.
Down below Haw Hill is somewhere needing more exploration,it's the ruins of a township called Crunlae.

A narrowish deepish burn is the last obstacle on todays walk...

....it didn't exactly go to plan.
Faces have been obscured to prevent embarrassment.Ha ha

It's been a very good and interesting walk.I'll certainly be doing some more exploration round here.
As usual the company was the best....with the exception of the following trespasser.It had attached itself to my right underarm.

Serves me right I suppose.
I'd been badgering the ladies when the call of nature came,to watch out for the little blighters.